FCC adopts net neutrality rules endorsed by open internet advocates

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted to approve new rules endorsed by advocates of net neutrality and President Barack Obama that will prohibit internet service providers from discriminating against content producers.

“Today we are here to answer a few simple questions”
about the internet, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said. “Who
determines how you use the internet? Who decides what content you
can view and when? Should there be a single internet or fast
lanes and slow lanes? Should internet service providers be left
free to slow down or throttle certain applications or content as
they see fit? Should your access to the internet on your mobile
device have the same protections as your fixed device at
home?”

By approving rules that will let the FCC regulate the internet
under Title II of the Communications Act, similar to how
traditional telecommunications are governed already under law,
ISPs will now be prohibited from giving preferential treatment to
content producers, an arrangement that net neutrality proponents
feared would allow for internet “fast lanes,” in which
companies could pay to have their products delivered more quickly
to US consumers.

“Today is a red-letter day for internet freedom,”
Wheeler said in his remarks. “For consumers who want to use
the internet on their terms. For innovators who want to reach
consumers without the control of gatekeepers. For a future in
which there are rules to protect the internet and its
users."

“But importantly, today is also a day that gives network
operators what they require to continue to expand broadband
service and competition. The rules for a fair and open internet
are not old-style utility regulation, but a 21st Century set of
rules for a 21st Century service,” the chairman
continued. “Rate regulation, tariffing and forced unbundling
have been superseded by a modernized regulatory approach that has
already been demonstrated to work in encouraging investment in
wireless voice networks.”

After
Wheelerintroduced his
proposalvia
anopen letter at the
beginning of February, the vice president of federal regulatory
for telecom giant AT&T said the company could pursue a
lawsuit if plans similar to Wheeler’s were approved since the
internet is an “information service.”

“When the FCC has to defend reclassification before an
appellate court, it will have to grapple with these and other
arguments,” AT&T’s Hank Hultquist wrote.

A court battle is expected. Other ISPs, such as Comcast, could
join or sue the government separately.

"It is a defining moment, but it will be redefined by the
courts, Congress and other entities including the marketplace
going forward," Gary Arlen, a research analyst, told USA
Today.

Many Republicans in Congress oppose the proposal, saying that
government meddling would snuff out investment in the industry.
The GOP-led legislative branch could pass its own net neutrality
laws, which would supersede the FCC’s regulations.

Before the commissioners voted on Wheeler’s proposal, they heard
testimony in favor from Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson; television
writer, producer and director Veena Sud; and founder of the
internet Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Both Dickerson and Sud spoke about
how net neutrality will benefit women, with the Etsy CEO saying
that 88 percent of the online marketplace’s 1.2 million sellers
are women, while the creator of AMC-cum-Netflix TV show ‘The
Killing’ noted that “while little more than 20 percent of
comedies and dramas on traditional television have a woman at the
helm, almost 40 percent of the series airing on these new online
platforms [like Amazon and Netflix] this season will be run by
women.”

“This is more than a theoretical exercise,” Clyburn said
in her wide-ranging comments, which covered the Founding Fathers,
the Civil Rights Movement and MC Hammer. “Providers here in
the United States have, in fact, blocked applications on mobile
devices, which not only hampers free expression, it also
restricts… innovation by allowing companies, not the consumer to
pick winners and losers.”

“As many of you know, this is not my first open internet
rodeo,” she added. “This is our third bite at the apple,
and we must get it right.”

Rosenworcel’s remarks were brief.

“We cannot have a two-tiered internet with fast lanes that
speed the privileged and leave the rest of us lagging behind. We
cannot have gatekeepers who tell us what we can and cannot do and
where we can and cannot go online. And we do not need blocking,
throttling or paid prioritization schemes that undermine the
internet as we know it,” she said. “For these reasons, I
support Chairman Wheeler’s efforts and rules today.”

There was a moment of
levity between Wheeler and the two GOP commissioners as a segue
between their remarks.

“I tried to keep score on all the things I disagreed with
that you said,” the FCC chairman told Commissioner Ajit Pai.
“But I’ve got you on my scorecard now as undecided, but
probably wavering against.”

Wheeler then called on Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, who responded,
“Thank you Mr. Chairman. Look forward to my scorecard as
well.”

Pai has been vehemently against Wheeler’s proposal from the
start, and spent 30 minutes elaborating on his stance Thursday.

“The internet is not broken. There is no problem for the
government to solve,” he said. “That the internet works,
that internet freedom works, should be apparent to anyone with an
Apple iPhone or Microsoft Surface, a Samsung Smart TV or Roku, a
Nest thermostat or a FitBit. We live in a time where you can buy
a movie from iTunes, watch a music video on YouTube, listen to a
personalized playlist on Pandora, watch your favorite novel come
to life on Amazon streaming video, help someone make potato salad
on kickstarter, check out the latest comic on xkcd, see what
Seinfeld has been up to on Crackle, navigate bad traffic with
Waze, watch an eventful FCC meeting online and do literally
hundreds of other things with an online connection.”

“For all intents and purposes, the internet as we know it
didn’t exist until the private sector developed it in the 1990s.
And it’s been the commercial internet that has led to the
creativity, the innovation and, frankly, the engineering genius
we see today,” Pai continued, calling the reports of
internet fast lanes and throttling “anecdote, hypothesis and
hysteria.”

O’Rielly agreed that the claims against ISPs were conjecture.

“Even after enduring three weeks of spin, it is hard for me
to believe that the Commission isestablishing an entire Title
II/net neutrality regime to protect against hypothetical harms.
There is not a shred of evidence that any aspect of this
structure is necessary. The D.C. Circuit called the prior,
scaled-down version a ‘prophylactic’ approach. I call it guilt by
imagination,” he said before voting against the order.
“There is a reason that Title II has been called the nuclear
option. No matter what the FCC tries to do to limit the fallout
(and it is not trying very hard to do that here) the decision
will still [negatively] impact investments.”

The FCC’s strict new rules ban blocking high-bandwidth
applications, throttling internet speeds or creating “fast lanes”
for customers who pay a premium. In an unprecedented move, the
rules will apply not just to traditional ISPs, but to mobile
providers like Verizon and AT&T as well.

In a signed letter to supporters, Pres Obama thanks over
4million he says wrote the FCC urging net neutrality. pic.twitter.com/HIAOP3C7Yj